“None of our balls have been found to have any foreign substance in them.”

It’s one thing to read about it. But watching Terry Bowden (who somehow kept a straight face) actually respond to charges from Mississippi State coach Jackie Sherrill that Auburn was spiking its footballs with helium is a nice reminder that, no, it isn’t some apocryphal tailgate tale people trot out once a year… it came up at press conferences and the beat writers and news anchors couldn’t help but laugh about it like everyone else. (Can’t see the video? Try here.)

“I’m not joking,” a smiling Phil Snow tells viewers during an WSFA sports segment on the SEC’s “secret search” for “funny footballs” at Auburn, “they really did an investigation.”

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